It may not be today, and it may not be tomorrow, but it is going to happen. Crazy weather and horrifying natural disasters have played havoc with agricultural production in many areas of the globe over the past couple of years.

Meanwhile, the price of oil has begun to skyrocket. The entire global economy is predicated on the ability to use massive amounts of inexpensive oil to cheaply produce food and other goods and transport them over vast distances. Without cheap oil the whole game changes.

Topsoil is being depleted at a staggering rate and key aquifers all over the world are being drained at an alarming pace. Global food prices are already at an all-time high and they continue to move up aggressively. So what is going to happen to our world when hundreds of millions more people cannot afford to feed themselves?

Most Americans are so accustomed to supermarkets that are absolutely packed to the gills with massive amounts of really inexpensive food that they cannot even imagine that life could be any other way. Unfortunately, that era is ending.

There are all kinds of indications that we are now entering a time when there will not be nearly enough food for everyone in the world. As competition for food supplies increases, food prices are going to go up. In fact, at some point they are going to go way up.

Let's look at some of the key reasons why an increasing number of people believe that a massive food crisis is on the horizon.

The following are 20 signs that a horrific global food crisis is coming....

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According to the World Bank, 44 million people around the globe have been pushed into extreme poverty since last June because of rising food prices

It is being projected that there will be no more wheat production in Saudi Arabia by the year 2012

Water tables all over the globe are being depleted at an alarming rate due to "overpumping"

aloshbennett via Flickr

According to the World Bank, there are 130 million people in China and 175 million people in India that are being fed with grain with water that is being pumped out of aquifers faster than it can be replaced.

The world is not going to have enough phosphorous to meet agricultural demand in just 30 to 40 years, say scientists with the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative

India is dealing with an annual food inflation rate of 18 percent

According to the United Nations, the global price of food was up 2.2% -- a new all-time high

bellissima_italia via Flickr

The Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement that its food price index was up 2.2 percent in February, the highest record in both real, inflation-corrected terms and nominal terms since the agency started monitoring prices two decades ago.

There have been persistent rumors of shortages at some of the biggest suppliers of emergency food in the United States

The following is an excerpt from a recent "special alert" posted on Raiders News Network:

"Look around you. Read the headlines. See the largest factories of food, potassium iodide, and other emergency product manufacturers literally closing their online stores and putting up signs like those on Mountain House's Official Website and Thyrosafe's Factory Webpage that explain, due to overwhelming demand, they are shutting down sales for the time being and hope to reopen someday."

So what does all of this mean?

It means that time is short.

For years, many "doom and gloomers" have been yelling and screaming that a food crisis is coming.

Well, up to this point there hasn't been much to get alarmed about. Food prices have started to rise, but the truth is that our stores are still packed to the rafters will gigantic amounts of relatively cheap food.

However, you would have to be an idiot not to see the warning signs. Just look at what happened in Japan after March 11th. Store shelves were cleared out almost instantly.

It isn't going to happen today, and it probably isn't going to happen tomorrow, but at some point a major league food crisis is going to strike.